Poloniex settles charges with SEC for operating unregistered exchange
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged crypto exchange platform Poloniex for breaching securities trading regulations.
According to an announcement by the SEC on Monday, Poloniex offered trading of cryptos deemed securities to U.S. investors on its platform between July 2017 and November 2019.
The SEC indictment also stated that employees of the exchange actively sought to circumvent securities regulation with the commission's enforcement chief Kristina Littman stating:
"Poloniex chose increased profits over compliance with the federal securities laws by including digital asset securities on its unregistered exchange [...] Poloniex attempted to circumvent the SEC’s regulatory regime, which applies to any marketplace for bringing together buyers and sellers of securities regardless of the applied technology.”According to the SEC announcement, Poloniex has elected to neither admit nor deny any wrongdoings but will pay a fine of about $10.3 million.